A street weapon common when I was in high school was a thing called a sinker basher. A street mace if you will. It was made from a lead fishing sinker, a small length of chain, and a key ring. Carrying it was simple you put one end in your back pocket and the other end in your front pocket. Carrying it this way made it very accessible and disguised it as a wallet with a chain.

Not exactly a weapon, but as fall approaches (at least for us northern folks) people pull out the coats. Many have hoods that are ideal for chokes... Some have drawstrings that can be used for the same.

The above is an excellent example of why training Judo/BJJ/other in the gi is useful in my eyes.

Wasn't there a thread on here somewhere about rolled up newspapers as an impact weapon?

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When life gives you lemons make lemonadeWhen life gives you hemlock, do NOT make hemlockade!

Not sure if you were there Jon but about a month ago I brought in some old t-shirts to try out collar chokes in and neither t-shirt ripped but the chokes were pretty easy to get. I would assume coats would be even easier to choke with and harder to rip. I'm looking forward to pulling mine out btw, bring on the cold!

I was there that day, and have always suspected that the "tshirt will rip" claims were bogus. I think no gi grappling is more unrealistic because people do wear clothing. If you don't train to use it then you are missing a fairly sizeable chuck of offensive capability. I have never had to fight on a beach, or at a pool where people were only wearing a rashguard and board shorts... and you can still grab those.

Anyway, I googled "street weapons" and found this:

"Pepper Spray BlasterSoak a few pounds of crushed or ground dried cayenne peppers in warm 90% grain alcohol for several hours, then evaporate off about half of the alcohol over an electric hot plate outside in an open area away from flame. Filter with a coffee filter and funnel or a coffee press then load the liquid into a cleaned out fire extinguisher with a schraeder (bike type) air fill valve, be sure to clean the O-ring at the neck, don't get your pepper liquid into the neck threads. Only discharge if you are wearing a gas mask, caution spray is flammable. A modified metal tube on the end of the hose is good for getting under doors or drilled holes in walls. Good for clearing out big corpgov conferences when fogged into the HVAC system of a conference hall.

Paint the ex-fire extinguisher black and paint "TEAR GAS" or something else so it is not ever used in a fire."

"Chains and Flexibles - Another easy-to-find item on street "arsenal,” the chain can be seen in all his forms, long or short, thick or thin. Very popular in rock/hardcore/punk gangs is sometimes used weighted at end with a lock. It is mainly used against knives and short weapons. From my own experience, a thick piece of chain can crush the flesh with those sinister terminal links since a thin chain can, literally, cut you. I saw on the streets both regular chains and distribution and bike chains. Bike chains are not so flexibles in all planes like an usual chain but can be wrapped over fist in a more suitable manner ( and its not so painful when you strike).

An improvement was when on the streets appeared the chainsaw saws. They have dents and they are used for strikes. The chain is held by an improvised rubber hose put over chain and the dents must face the hand to grab better.

I saw years ago in winter time a guy with an feather insulated coat stroked with such chain, his coat was ripped and the image was similar with an exploding pillow. Another form of chains is called here "japca" and consist in a very thin chain with fishing hooks tied with strong fishing line one inch apart from one another. Just imagine... A very rare form it is a slightly big fishing 3-hook anchor (around 8-12 cm. long) used to hook limbs, shoulders, or the back of the neck.

Not very popular but still there are chain flails or chain whips. These improvised "morning stars” have a lock or bike motric pinions for weight. Most used handles are from broom sticks which are used also for homemade nunchaku (which had his own golden decade on streets between 1980-1990). I believe these weapons never grow in popularity because their big mass and dimensions."

Not sure if you were there Jon but about a month ago I brought in some old t-shirts to try out collar chokes in and neither t-shirt ripped but the chokes were pretty easy to get. I would assume coats would be even easier to choke with and harder to rip. I'm looking forward to pulling mine out btw, bring on the cold!

Actually, the "thinness" of the T-shirt collar can make it act like a "garrote" of sorts.

Take your newspaper lay it flat, start from a corner, and roll in as tight as possible until you reach the opposite corner, in other words roll it diagonally.

You will now have a long tube, depending on thickness you bend it at the center, if you feel to much resistance bend it both sides near the middle(if not it will literally split in half), giving you a very narrow U shaped paper.

For extra "oomph" you can wrap the newspaper in duct or electrical tape.

i'm hesitant to post on this thread.. may give new ideas to BG's... Guro Crafty et al, should i post 2 ideas?

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"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

(IMHO) I say put it out there... I could digress in detail, but bottom line, my thought is that if someone is intent to do harm onto another there are numerous easy ways to do it. A dedicated bad guy/gal will always find a way. Help educate those that are not so intent to do harm and those that do not invest the time seeking these creative and inovative means to do no good.

Just my nickle

Knowledge not shared is wasted...

Yip

Others please share your thoughts... I am always the student first. I could be wrong on this.

Thanks for asking Crafty - much respect to you always...

PSI will email you this weekend with an update on our upcomming adventure here at NAS Lemoore. (Thank you for your patience)

My state's DOC had to remove "Jolly Rancher" candy from the inmate commissaries because they had figured out how to soften them, mashing them together, to make "shanks" out of them. From what was related to me, it's possible to put a razor edge on one of these candy blades.

The majority of stabbings I've seen when working "inside" was with pens/pencils. I've seen "golf pencils" used by psych patients to engage in serious self mutilation, including one incident where a female patient shoved one into her arm, through roughly 3-4 inches of muscle so that only the base and tip of the pencil were visible in the wound.

One of my biggest worries working as a C.O. was unsecured padlocks. We had lazy staff that would fail to lock the padlock. All it takes is a metal padlock to be placed in a sock and you've got a nasty bludgeon.

Anything that can be given a sharp point or edge can be a stabbing/cutting weapon. Anything that has weight/mass and a way to deliver it with kinetic energy can be a bludgeon. Bodily fluids, cleaning chemicals, flammable chemicals can all be used as offensive weapons as well.

As responsible citizens, you probably won't be throwing a "correctional cocktail" in anyone's face, but it's something to keep in mind. The thugs know that the whole world is a weapons factory. Learn to see it that way too, and you'll never be unarmed.

Ray Floro on his site has this idea... fold a credit card in half... the point at the fold will cut.

following along those lines... a soda/beer can can also be used in this fashion. a friend mentioned it to me ages ago, he used to keep a few soda cans in his car for this purpose.

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"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

One common street weapon is the razor blade concealed in the mouth. This is more of an east coast gang thing for now. The practitioners of this are extremely skilled at manipulating the blade in their mouth without injuring themselves. A common method of attack is to grapple with the opponent, then hold the razor with their teeth and slash at whatever soft tissue is within reach.

Don't know on which post to put this, but I found it interesting. Recently, I hurt my knee; I have a big brace (padding and steel) and also I need to use a cane.Yesterday, as I was entering the Courthouse, the guy in front of me was stopped for having a lighter; it was a big deal. Next in line, I have a full JO with me that I use as a walking stick. No problem whatsoever; no question, nothing. As for my brace, (which is big enough to hold a gun or multiple knives) of course it set the alarm off; however again, no problem - no questions, no examination (the walk through alarm does not show shape), they just waved me through. My point; if it looks harmless, it still might not be.

We have a guy in our class who wears an orthopedic knee brace. You know those light weight ones athletes wear while rehabing. Well the darn thing is a weapon. Getting struck by this thing in training is quite painfull!

Those things are perfect for a mean dog. I bet even the swishing sound one makes in the air would suffice to back up all but the most determined dog.

Tangent: Tom Meadows once was showing me what he can do with a sling (EXTREMELY impressive by the way) and he started to whip the thing around in a circle for a super release. The sound set off Morro, my second Akita, who went from at rest to full attack mode in an instant but fortunately both Tom and I read his movement in timely manner for him to break off before contact.

Actually, to be precise he, like any good Akita was quite the opposite of juramentado/going amok, which are states in which judgement is disconnected in a killing frenzy.

Although quite fearless any good Akita is supposed to remain aware of the situation and do what is necessary AND NO MORE. In this case, Morro instantly correctly read Tom's jump back and my exhalation as indicating that it was not necessary to continue. The intensity of his intent quite startled me. He was a far less aggressive dog than Zapata, my first Akita and the one you see in the DBMA logo (drawn by Shaggy Dog).

I saw this "and no more" repeatedly, especially with Zapata, who was a master of provoking other dogs to come over within reach to fight and in an incident where a young male put a fight collar on his Rott to try Zapata.

One of my students (LEO) recently sent me a copy of "For Your Safety: The Updated Book of Concealed or Unusual Weapons". It includes a lot of unusual weapons, many that probably wouldn't pop up on most peoples radar. Cycling is one of the tools I use for training so this one popped out to me. It probably wouldn't occur to most civillians or LEO's that the seat tube of a bike is concealing a dangerous weapon. With a quick release seat collar this thing could be brought out in a flash...cumbersome, but dangerous.

William

BIKE SEAT KNIFE:This "Bike Seat Dagger" was discovered by an officeron the New Haven, Connecticut PD after asuspected gangbanger abandoned his bicycle and fledduring a street stop. The "dagger" consists of a 10-inch piece of solid steel,machined down to a spear-like point and then welded tothe end of the bicycle seat post. It is easily concealedwhen the seat post is clamped in place in the bike'svertical seat-post tube.

PS: Sorry, system won't let me up-load the pictures.

PPS: Sorry CD, I had done a search on "Improvised weapons" and came up emty so I started the thread.

in a recent seminar I attended with Tuhon Ray Dionaldo here in Jerusalem, he showed us the Sarong and how to use it. Of course non of us here usually walk around wearing one - so we used the next best thing... literaly the shirt off our back we didnt video the seminar , but I did find this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy3sO6k6ywk that kind of gives you an ideathe torque generated from just a little twist in the wrist was enough to pull a big guy down

One of my previous instructors also taught Silat and worked the Sarong with us on a number of occasions. It could be deceptively effective and actually a lot of fun to train...as long as your the one working the techniques. I liked it but at the time treated it more like something good to know but not likely to use.

Here in the frigid New England winter it's much more likely to be useable if you're wearing a good scarf. That's why I still play with it. Just make sure it's a tight knit one where the fabric isn't very stretchy (Did I just use the word "stretchy"?).

One of my previous instructors also taught Silat and worked the Sarong with us on a number of occasions. It could be deceptively effective and actually a lot of fun to train...as long as your the one working the techniques. I liked it but at the time treated it more like something good to know but not likely to use.

Here in the frigid New England winter it's much more likely to be useable if you're wearing a good scarf. That's why I still play with it. Just make sure it's a tight knit one where the fabric isn't very stretchy (Did I just use the word "stretchy"?).

I have a couple stories where I've seen some pretty interesting street weapons used: I used to spar with a group of guys outside at a rec center in San Diego. One day there was a big circle of guys from the local high school in a big circle. They were a gang and were having new members fight each other inside the circle. We sat at a distance and watched probably five fights with lots of haymakers and double legs with horrible posture. Anyway, I noticed that a number of people at the edge of the circle had weapons. About ten guys had those small novelty basesball bats that are about a foot and a half long. One guy had a long sock with something heavy tied in a knot at the end, and one guy had a balisong. None of these weapons actually came into play. At some point some other group of guys came over and started arguing with the first group. Group 2 starts walking off, yelling that they'll be back later. At that point we decided we should leave, since we figured they might be coming back with some more sinister weapons. Another time a bunch of angry teenagers were causing a scene on the trolley. One of them had one of those small bats and was pounding on the trolley handrails, scaring a bunch of kids and pissing off some dads. I tried to reason with them to avoid a brawl and some chaos ensued. When cruising around Mira Mesa I happened to see a fight where a guy was hitting another guy with his belt, swinging downward strikes with the belt buckle. The unarmed guy shields his head, rushes forward and grabs the belt, and starts punching with his free hand until the first guy lets go of the belt. They back away from each other and exchange some angry words, then part ways. One other time I was walking next to a little stream going into the bay (a little area called Rose Creek). There's always a number of homeless guys hanging out there. Across the creek I saw two homeless guys start fighting. One was sitting down and the other started hammerfisting his head with a beer can. It was pretty loud. As he's getting beaten, the guy starts standing up and I could see that he was bigger than the guy with the can. The bigger guy throws some wild punches to the other guys face, and when the guy leans forward big guy snap kicks him in the face. As big guy advances forward with a sort of guard up, smaller beer can guy picks up a rock a little bigger than a softball. He holds it up like he's going to throw it, and big guy starts covering his head by shifting between a crazy monkey and dracula style guard. Small guy sees that he can't hit the guy's head, he tries to throw the big rock at big guy's kidney area, which bounces off without much effect. Big guy finishes with another haymaker followed by soccer kicks to the ribs of the other guy. It goes to show you that pre-empting and using weapons doesn't mean you're going to win.

I used to know a guy who kept about an 18 inch piece of hose filled with sand and plugged with JB weld. It definitely had some weight to it for its size and I'm sure it wouldn't feel to good to get hit with

Slingshots are an amazing tools and I highly recommend learning to use one. Next to using a .22, a slingshot is my preferred tool for hunting small game. They are even legal for hunting in many states (though check your game regulations first). I have used them for taking down squirrels and rabbits at ranges of 30-50 feet. Two experienced shooters I know have even brought down deer with headshots at ranges of 15 yards with heavy-duty (equivalent of 40 lb draw-weight) slingshots and lead ammo.

Keep in mind that these are not the $10 "Wrist-Rockets" you can buy at Wal-Mart. A high-powered slingshot usually costs $30+ and is more like shooting a low-powered recurve bow.

The great thing is that the skill-set you acquire in learning to use a slingshot will carry over to archery since the physical technique for shooting both weapons is nearly identical. A slingshot is quiet, lightweight, and costs little.

For backyard practice, I have an inexpensive “wrist-rocket” available that cost $10. A few bags of 1/2'” marbles from the local craft store provides plenty of “ammo” for practice. I do not use this style of slingshot for hunting as it is too weak.

Instead, I make my hunting slingshots from a Y-shaped stick and heavy duty bands of flat rubber banding. If you don’t want to make your own, then purchase a quality slingshot from an experienced maker like Madison Parker. He hunts regularly with slingshots and knows how to make the good stuff. His site is worth a visit- http://www.primitivesupply.com

Otherwise, I’ve had good luck using the Saunders Wrist Rocket Pro or a Barnett Wrist Rocket, both of which are available online.

Practice and Ammo Types

For practice, suspend a blanket between two trees in your backyard. The blanket should hang down on the ground and be loose to absorb the impact of the marbles. Set up a few pop cans on the ground in front of the blanket and then stand back at 30 feet to start with. As your skill progresses, increase the distance. The rest is all about the 3 magic words that lead to proficiency with any worthwhile skill: practice, practice, practice.

After a few weeks, turn the can on its end and work on hitting the bottom only. Like most skills, repetition is the key here so put in twenty minutes of practice every day. Then after a few weeks, you should be on your way to turning the slingshot into an effective game-getter.

Beware that this is a lethal weapon and can hurdle a projectile great distances (or even bounce them back at you- so protect your eyes!) and you will want to apply the same safety rules as you would when using the .22 rifle.

When you transition to hunting with a more powerful slingshot, use heavier ammo such as .45 caliber blackpowder balls or stainless steel ballbearings.

The above article is an excerpt from The Modern Hunter-Gatherer: A Practical Guide To Living Off the Land by Tony Nester. Due out in September 2009.